Fixing white ballance for a JPG

[tim]

I'm used to shooting RAW, but I do occasionally shoot JPG. I have a photo (http://www.mrwild.co.nz/Featured/People/slides/IMG_1932.html) of a friend of mine that he quite likes, but it was shot in auto under tungesten light. What's the easiest way to correct the color in Photoshop? Shooting RAW avoids this problem, I know, I do now, but at that time I didn't have enough memory for RAW.

[aam1234]

Can't answer your question Tim, but the photo looks OK to me. That little yellow tint might actually be good, it makes the photo a bit warm.

[PhotosGuy]

The pic looks OK to me, too. The EASIEST way is to goto Image > Adjustments / Levels & use the white colorpicker & click on a white in the image. It's not too intuitive, & I generally don't like the results.
A better way would be to use Levels & use the rgb drop down arrow in the field at the top to go to the individual rgb layers & adjust manually.
Or you could try a hue/saturation adjustment. Maybe easier to try Image > Variations for a one click method. (I think it's in the Image menu. If not, look around for it).

[cactusclay]

It doesn't look bad like it is Tim.

[scottbergerphoto]

I usually adjust White balance in a jpeg or tiff in Levels by clicking on the Grey Eye Dropper and then selecting a neutral grey area in the image.

If you want to be more exacting you can use Curves:
1. Open Curves.
2. Open the Info Pallate. Window>Info
3. Move your cursor (doesn't matter which tool) over an area of the image that should be neutral . Ctrl-click over what should be a neutral area to put a marker on the curve. All 3, 3 digit numbers for RGB should be the same. (eg, 120, 120, 120). If not, in Curves go to the channel of the one that's off (R,G, or B) and at the marker on the curve that represents the area you checked, pull the curve up or down as needed to raise or lower the luminance value for that channel.
4. Move your cursor back over to the spot on the image and see how the revised numbers are. Check the image.

[PacAce]

The pic looks OK to me, too. The EASIEST way is to goto Image > Adjustments / Levels & use the white colorpicker & click on a white in the image. It's not too intuitive, & I generally don't like the results.
A better way would be to use Levels & use the rgb drop down arrow in the field at the top to go to the individual rgb layers & adjust manually.
Or you could try a hue/saturation adjustment. Maybe easier to try Image > Variations for a one click method. (I think it's in the Image menu. If not, look around for it).
I wouldn't use the WHITE eye dropper, Frank. That's used to set your white point which will make that point the brightest point in the image. For color balance correcting, the GRAY eye dropper is the appropriate tool to use, as was already mentioned by Scott. That might explain your unsatisfactory results with using the white eye-dropper.

[tim]

I tried the black/white eye dropper, it blew out the image or made it too dark. I didn't try the grey one. I'll try your other suggestions, thanks :)

[PhotosGuy]

I wouldn't use the WHITE eye dropper, Frank. I agree Leo, but how often do you see a gray in an image + he asked for the easiest way. For me, the BEST way is to do it in RAW.
re: "That might explain your unsatisfactory results with using the white eye-dropper." I've tried using the white/gray/black droppers as designed, but they always seem to overadjust so I don't use them at all.

[tim]

For this shot I was playing around showing my mate my new camera, I wasn't at the stage yet where I knew enough to use RAW. I might leave the photo as is, but i'd like to see how it looks with a proper white ballance too. It's so easy in RAW, that's one reason I use RAW, but I do want to know the best way to do it with a JPG too - which I think CS2 will do for me. Playing with the Adjustments | Color sliders is the way I do it at the moment, which doesn't work overly well.

[PacAce]

I agree Leo, but how often do you see a gray in an image + he asked for the easiest way. For me, the BEST way is to do it in RAW.
re: "That might explain your unsatisfactory results with using the white eye-dropper." I've tried using the white/gray/black droppers as designed, but they always seem to overadjust so I don't use them at all.
Yes, that's a very fair question to ask, but actually, the gray eye-dropper will work with any neutral color...black, white and any shade of gray in-between. All you're doing with the gray eye-dropper is making the 3 primary colors that make up the color equal in value. The white eye-dropper and the black eye-droppers do more than that by setting the white (brightest) point and the black (darkest) point, respectively, as well.

[scottbergerphoto]

Yes, that's a very fair question to ask, but actually, the gray eye-dropper will work with any neutral color...black, white and any shade of gray in-between. All you're doing with the gray eye-dropper is making the 3 primary colors that make up the color equal in value.
Exactly. That is what you do manually in the Curves Technique I described above. Finding a color that is supposed to be neutral and making sure that R=G=B.
The White arrow tells the program to make everything with a luminance value of what you select and 255 to look 255(or the value you select in the Color Picker). The Black arrow tells the program to make everything between the luminance value you select and 0 to look 0 (or the number you selct in the Color Picker). There is nothing in the white or black arrows or eyedroppers that deals with color casts.
A note about ACR: When using the eye dropper in ACR to set a White Balance, you are looking for an area of bright white that still holds detail, not a neutral grey.

[PhotosGuy]

Yes, that's a very fair question to ask, but actually, the gray eye-dropper will work with any neutral color...black, white and any shade of gray in-between. Good point. I use it so seldom that I'd forgotten that.

[kawter2]

Have you ever tried [ctrl + alt + b] Not the most precise function, but before I adjust curves to fix wb, I give it a shot, if it worky, I keepy. If not it is only a [ctrl + z] and [ctrl + m] to realllly fix it


lol gotta love keyboard shortcuts

[tim]

I'll give it a go, thanks kawter.

[scottbergerphoto]

Have you ever tried [ctrl + alt + b] Not the most precise function, but before I adjust curves to fix wb, I give it a shot, if it worky, I keepy. If not it is only a [ctrl + z] and [ctrl + m] to realllly fix it


lol gotta love keyboard shortcuts
CTRL-ALT-B is Color Balance. To remove a cast in one step, you are better off using Auto Color, Shift+CTRL+B. You can make this a better tool by:
1. Opening up Curves (CTRL-M) and Select>Options.
2. Click on the Black swatch (Shadows) and in the Color Picker set RGB = 10, 10, 10.
3. Click on the Grey swatch and in the Color Picker set it to 128, 128, 128.
4. Click on the White swatch and in the Color Picker set it to 240, 240, 240.
5. Select Snap Neutral Midtones and Find Dark and Light Colors.
6. Save as Defaults.
7. Select OK
Now whenever you use Auto Color those will be the defaults.

[jyrgen]

You can also convert to Lab colour and modify the b channel with the Curves tool.

[tim]

Scott, your method worked really well, thanks! Auto color worked well too, just not quite as well. The corrected version can be seen here (http://mwrild.co.nz/unprotected/potn/IMG_1932_v2.jpg).

[Wazza]

I also use the grey eye-dropper, and then you almost have full control over it. Unless it's one of those difficult, hard to find neutral greys on image. :p

I use it most to slightly correct aircraft shots for airliners.net. All that steel, it's bound to go wrong often.